Coffee House Exclusive: Richard Reeves to be the new director of Demos
James Forsyth 6:50pm
I said earlier on Coffee House that who Demos appointed as their new director would give us a sense of where the intellectual energy is on the left and the news that they have appointed Richard Reeves shows that the liberal-left is not yet ready to cede the intellectual battlefield. It also illustrates that even on the left the intellectual conversation has moved passed Gordon Brown.
Reeves co-wrote with Phil Collins the recent Prospect essay Liberalise or Die that caused such a stir; Brownite loyalists demanded that James Purnell stop using Phil Collins as a speechwriter after it appeared. The piece argued that Labour was failing to grasp that the key argument in politics today is “how to ensure people are in control of their own lives” and that “For New Labour to survive, it must become new liberal.” It will be fascinating to see how Reeves advances this agenda at Demos.
Reeves has written an acclaimed biography of John Stuart-Mill and is an expert on the well-being agenda. Previously, he was an adviser to Frank Field when he was welfare reform minister. If Reeves in his new role can help the liberal-left think the unthinkable, he will give the world of ideas a huge boost.
Previous
Comments
Chuck Unsworth
July 17th, 2008 7:04pm"even on the left the intellectual conversation has moved passed Gordon Brown"
Yes indeed.
grumpy old man
July 17th, 2008 8:52pmThe intellectual right has become complacent. They are going to have to get up to fighting trim pretty quickly to retain the high ground. This boy is GOOD.
Richard
July 17th, 2008 9:43pmIt's certainly a better appointment than that of Madeleine Bunting a few years ago (I seem to remember she lasted just a month).
Mr Mhena
July 17th, 2008 10:19pmDemos?
Sodem.
THX1138
July 17th, 2008 10:41pmCoffee House Exclusive: Richard Reeves to be the new director of Demos-Is that the best you can do, Who cares
Frank Pulley
July 17th, 2008 10:49pmWell it has either moved Gordon Brown, or passed him. Can't be both, so which is it, James :-)?
Fergus Pickering
July 17th, 2008 11:17pmpast, my dear chap, past
Guido Fawkes
July 18th, 2008 8:10amJames, Guido is as fond as claiming an exclusive as the next blogger. Generally, however, am reluctant to claim to have exclusively read a press release.
cat osb
July 18th, 2008 11:04amThis is interesting news. His biography of John Stuart Mill was excellent. He will definitely not be a mere mouthpiece for the totalitarian left and their clerical fascist allies.
rv
July 18th, 2008 3:40pmHe presented an excellent Analysis on Radio 4 last week about the importance of good character. It argued that policy makers needed to accept that social disadvantage is not the result of a lack of money but more often a lack of good character.
The transcript is here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/programmes/analysis/transcripts/10_07_08.txt
He is an interesting man who might take Demos in an interesting direction. He's also a cub scout leader.
Hysteria
July 19th, 2008 5:35am“For New Labour to survive, it must become new liberal.”
what with LibDems now becoming a tax cutting party - I can't keep it all straight - it's doing my head in!